1. A role for UNESCO in promoting new partnerships AAAS Annual Meeting St. Louis, MO February 17, 2005 Bruce Alberts Professor, University of California, San Francisco Co-chair, InterAcademy Council, Amsterdam

2. My Bottom Line: It is critically important that science, and scientists, achieve a much higher degree of influence throughout both their nations and the world. This is important for the success of each nation. It is also important for building a better world.

3. My Bottom Line (continued): By adopting a carefully selected strategic focus, UNESCO can play a critical role in accomplishing such an ambitious, worldwide agenda for science.

4. The National Academies began with a charter from president Abraham Lincoln to the National Academy of Sciences, 1863 A private, non-governmental organization

5. www.NationalAcademies.org Full text of more than 3500 books now on-line, accessible through powerful search engine. For 146 nations, most reports are now available as free PDFs.

6. Organizes National Academies reports by theme. Links to reports, summaries, and derivative products. Translations of some reports. State-of-the-art search engine. http://water.national-academies.org Water Information Center http://water.national-academies.org

7. An important strategic focus for UNESCO Promoting scientific knowledge as a “public good”, emphasizing both Web-based knowledge resources and the availability of inexpensive bandwidth for all universities and research and development institutes.Promoting scientific knowledge as a “public good”, emphasizing both Web-based knowledge resources and the availability of inexpensive bandwidth for all universities and research and development institutes.

8. The National Academies’ attempt to promote an enlarged agenda for science in the 21st century Emphasizes that an ambitious applied type of science, termed “sustainability science” is critical for the world’s future.

9. Integrating Knowledge And Action Because the pathway to sustainability cannot be charted in advance, it will have to be navigated through trial and error and conscious experimentation. The urgent need is to design strategies and institutions that can better integrate incomplete knowledge with experimental action--- into programs of adaptive management and social learning. Our Common Journey, 1999

10. What will be required for the success of sustainability science?

11. Science and technology can make a major difference for national development through a myriad of interventions, but most of these are much too fine-grained for outsiders to expect to be able to solve other nation’s problems. Instead, our focus should be on helping to build the local capacities that each nation will need to solve their problems themselves. not enough emphasis on building local institutions for science and technology One major problem with current development efforts: not enough emphasis on building local institutions for science and technology!

12. For every nation, strong institutions for science and technology are key Scientists are unlikely to be effective in either their work or in guiding the decisions made by their nations without strong institutions to support and harness their efforts. effective merit-based institutionsTo develop, harness, and retain the talent needed in every nation, building and supporting effective merit-based institutions for science and technology must become a key goal for development.

13. An important how-to-do-it guide from the InterAcademy Council in Amsterdam Inventing a Better Future: A Strategy for Building Worldwide Capacities in Science and Technology. A guide for building high quality institutions for science and technology in every nation. Read it at www.interacademycouncil.net

14. The 2004 report release at the UN

15. The next step: a new partnership between the world scientific community and UNESCO The InterAcademy Council (IAC) and the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP), in association with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in Montreal, are initiating a project that enlists the participation of scientific academies in developing more reliable and useful indicators of S&T capacity and quality. These indicators will be designed to help guide and measure progress toward S&T capacity goals.

16. Hundreds of well-intentioned international aid agencies, with their own priorities and idiosyncrasies, seldom cooperate or even communicate with each other. Instead, they compete for publicity, funding, and access to potential recipients. Overburdened leaders in developing countries, whose governments are often relatively disorganized, confront a cacophony of offers and demands from donors. Jimmy Carter no coordination A second major problem with current development efforts: no coordination!

17. Can strong land-grant type universities in the developing world help to organize and coordinate the work of aid agencies, with university institutes and departments replacing the many uncoordinated and competing NGOs? There would be many advantages to such a scheme. Could UNESCO help promote such a change? Strong local institutions are needed to provide the missing coordination

18. We need to be much smarter in learning from the thousands of “experiments” in sustainable development underway in the world, sponsored by NGOs and by governments (for example, more than 50 different rural ICT projects in India alone). We can learn a great deal from the failures; but nearly all such projects claim to be successful, and the lessons learned are thereby lost. little learning from experiments A third major problem with current development efforts: little learning from experiments!

19. Making a science out of sustainable development: a task worthy of UNESCO By catalyzing objective, comparative studies of ongoing projects with similar aims, UNESCO can help create a badly needed, evidence-based science of what works where and why.By catalyzing objective, comparative studies of ongoing projects with similar aims, UNESCO can help create a badly needed, evidence-based science of what works where and why.

20. In summary: some important strategic goals for UNESCO Promoting scientific knowledge as a “public good”, emphasizing both Web-based knowledge resources and the availability of inexpensive bandwidth for all universities.Promoting scientific knowledge as a “public good”, emphasizing both Web-based knowledge resources and the availability of inexpensive bandwidth for all universities. Making a science out of sustainable development by encouraging objective comparative studies of ongoing projects with similar aims.Making a science out of sustainable development by encouraging objective comparative studies of ongoing projects with similar aims. Working with governments to help each nation recognize the critical importance of building merit-based institutions for science and technology that can solve local problems -- while also helping to coordinate the work of aid agencies.Working with governments to help each nation recognize the critical importance of building merit-based institutions for science and technology that can solve local problems -- while also helping to coordinate the work of aid agencies.

21. The promise of world science collaboration